Once upon a ship
by 96DarkAngel
Summary: Was it destiny? Or a coincidence? They'll never know, but they didn't care either way. What mattered was that they found their calling in a dangerous situation.


**My first Ice Age fic. This** **is how I think Gutt and his crew met. Probably different from what other fans of the pirates think, but it's not gonna stop me. They're all adolescents in here. Enjoy!**

* * *

He wasn't sure how it happened really. All he remembered was searching for food when a sudden headache then darkness consumed him. When he awoke, there was only a blue sky above his head. No trees or fruit. The air tasted salty.

He tried to move but found his arms and legs were bound. Struggling to break free while trying to decipher where he was, a small mammal popped into his vision. Startled, the ape stared in confusion at what appeared to be a light brown ferret. The ferret smiled down at him, but not in a friendly way.

Scurrying away, the ferret raced to another figure nearby. Keeping him in his sight, the ferret seemed to be talking, but nothing was heard. After a few minutes, the figure got up and walked toward him. As he got closer, the figure was revealed to be a large wolf, "Good to see Sleeping Beauty is finally awake. How you holding up lad?"

"I was fine, until I was attacked."

"Attacked?! How terrible, I specifically told my crew not to harm you in anyway," He smiled down at him, but something was off about him, "So how about an introduction. The name's Captain Aargon. And yours?"

"Amos." The ape reluctantly replied.

"Interesting name. I bet you're wondering where you are. Well... You're on a ship lad."

Amos's eyes widened, "A ship? As in out at sea?"

"Bingo."

Gulping, Amos tried to calculate his chances of getting his freedom back, so far it wasn't very high, "Why did you capture me?"

Aargon looked him over, "I saw you not to far from where our ship landed and thought about how useful you can be. You maybe an adolescent now, but you'll eventually grow to be big and strong. What do yah say? A once in a life time opportunity to sail out at sea, to see new places, and of course be highly rewarded for your work."

Aargon moved to the side to show what the ship was holding. Many large piles of fruit were scattered on the ship, just looking at one pile made his mouth water since food was getting scarce where he was from. But it wasn't just the fruit that caught his attention, the other crew members were also enjoying themselves. He saw at least two other wolves, the ferret, a raccoon, and a beaver.

Again he thought of his choices. If he joined the crew, then he would live and travel the seas while being well fed. If he didn't, he'd have to try and find a way back home. Somehow, he doubted they would just drop him off on any land they come across. He wanted to accept the wolf's offer, but deep down he didn't want anything to do with the strange crew.

It took a few minutes until he made a decision, but it was already too late. Aargon mistook his silence as a refusal and began to growl, "Don't wanna join huh? Well no matter, you'll stay with us anyway. Kanu, Bako, Talis! Take this low life down below with the others!"

The raccoon, beaver, and ferret walked up and started dragging Amos somewhere. He began to struggle, thinking he was going to be thrown over, but quickly rejected that idea. They were forcing him to stay, whether he liked it or not.

They soon stopped dragging him and lifted up a piece of wood. Underneath it was a hole, where Amos was thrown into. He slid down into an inner room and glared up the hole at the snickering mammals.

Turning his attention to the room, Amos found he wasn't the only one down there. There were other animals, all looked around the same age as him. From what he could see there was only a few he recognized, a badger, a rabbit, some kind of bird, and a warthog. The other two he wasn't sure. All of them were tied down.

"They got you too ay? Tough luck mate." A female voice said with an accent he never heard before.

"Why are we all down here?" He asked.

"You saw their crew didn't you?" Another female voice rang out. He looked to his right and jumped back. She was a saber lying on her side. He took a closer look and saw her paws were bound, but he still stayed a few feet away from her. "Relax, I'm not going to attack you. I can't in case you didn't see."

"I did. Why you asking about the crew up there?"

"There were wolves up there."

"And?"

A male voice snapped at him this time, "Come on man! Put two-and-two together!"

He looked at the rabbit and glared at him. Then another male voice sounded out with an entirely different accent, "Wolves are carnivores. The ship is full of fruit. Why live off of fruit when any captives can serve as a double meaning."

Amos turned to the badger then looked down. Three wolves on a ship to the brim with fruit. Wolves were carnivores and he didn't see anything up top that would serve as food for one. His eyes widened. Captives were unknowingly given a choice of joining the crew or being a MEAL for them.

He shook his head, "No."

"Took you a while to figua' it out. Yer probably a bigga dimwit than 'im." The other female gestured over to the second animal he didn't recognize and a big chubby one he was.

The big one turned around, "Who? Who's a dimwit? I don't see anyone."

"Who else would it be?" Asked the bird annoyed.

Both of them had different accents. These animals must be from other places he thought, "So do any of you have a plan to get out of here?"

"What's the point? We're all goners down here." The rabbit replied.

"Well I don't know about any of you, but I wanna make it out of here ALIVE. So if any of you think to same, I suggest we work together to get out. Any objections?"

They all stayed silent because deep down all of them knew that he was right.

"Good. I say the first thing we need to do is get acquainted with each other."

"Who died and made you captain?" The badger snapped.

"I don't see anyone else stepping up for the job! Now as I was saying, once we get aquatinted with each other, trust issues won't be that big a problem," No one spoke up, "Fine. I'll go first. I'm Amos."

After a minute of silence, the saber spoke, "Shira."

Then the badger, "Gupta."

And so on.

"Raz."

"Silas."

"I'm Flynn!"

"... Squint."

"And yours?" Amos asked the warthog. He said nothing but grunt. "Can you talk?"

He shook his head.

"Okay then we need to think of something to call you... Boris?"

He nodded his head.

"Alright then, we all know each other. Now to think of a way out."

"I've been down here for quite a bit," Silas answered, "I'm the only survivor from the last group they ate. For small animals they pull them up. Bigger ones however are eaten down here since they'll have more difficulty pulling them back up."

"Do you know the next time they come down?"

"I've counted the days in between meals for them. I can tell since the room gets dark at night, but they come down every two days. Tomorrow will be their next."

"So we have one day to form a plan. Can anybody untie them selves?"

"If we could, we wouldn't be bound right now." Gupta informed.

Amos growled. There had to be someway to cut their binds. He examined the others, but only found one who may be able to do so, "You! Uh... Raz!"

She looked up, "Yeah?"

"Your feet, they're not bound. Why?"

"You kiddin'? We kangaroos are known fer strong legs. No 'mount a' vines could keep 'em tied down."

A kangaroo? So that's what she was, "Can you get up so you can cut vines off with your claws?"

Sure enough, Raz leaned back and pushed herself up on her feet with her tail. She surprised all of them by hopping to him instead of walking.

"S'matter with you? Can't walk?" Squint remarked.

"It ain't easy for me to walk like all a' you."

Trying to balance on one foot, she slashed the vines off Amos. In return, he slashed off hers. Both got right to work with freeing the others. Amos had stopped at Shira and eyed her warily.

"I'm not going to attack. I wanna get out of here too," She promised.

Hesitantly, he cut off the vines. The reaction was instant.

"Are you crazy! She's gonna eat all down here!" Squint cried.

"No I'm not! If I was, I would of done it by now!"

"Stop!" Amos interrupted, "We're all getting out of here and trust each other to get back our freedom. So no arguing!"

The two glared before turning their attention back to Amos. They had a plan to hatch.

* * *

**The next day**

Aargon lifted up the hatch and peered inside, "Hehe so boys, what shall we eat today?"

The two other wolves chuckled darkly. One of them made a suggestion, "I say we eat the saber! Teach her a lesson about trying to pick a fight."

"You're crazy Koros! I say we eat the elephant seal. Big dope would probably thing it's a party like when we captured him. And who knows how long he'll keep us full."

"Maybe you're right Ynk. That big one will definitely keep us good and full a week or longer."

Chuckling, Aargon pulled on the vine to make sure it was tied to the mast, "Guess were havin' elephant seal tonight. You three!" He turned to the ferret, beaver, and raccoon," Make sure the vine doesn't get ready to snap on our way back up."

The remaining nodded while the wolves jumped down. As they entered, the surveyed the other animals. All of them were moping as usual... Or so it appeared. They chuckled and headed for Flynn, paying no mind to the fact that one was missing from his place.

Flynn caught sight of the wolves and smiled, "How do you do this fine day? Am I finally gonna leave?"

"Oh you'll leave alright," Ynk remarked, "Through our systems."

"Hope you didn't get too close to your friends." Koros said.

"Oh but I did! And we're all planning to escape!"

Aargon scoffed, "Escape? Right. You're all tied down, so none of you can do anything."

"But we're not tied down! See." Flynn flopped closer to them, making them stop in surprise.

The next thing they knew, all their legs had been bound together causing them to fall over. Squint stood above them looking annoyed, "You weren't supposed to tell them what we're planning!"

"Oh.. Sorry."

Amos sighed in frustration, "It doesn't matter anyway. We got them. Silas! You know what to do."

Silas nodded and flew up through the hole, startling the three above. He tried to chase them away while Squint and Gupta climbed up the vine and helped Silas distract them. Amos followed soon after and prepared to pull the larger animals up.

As they were being pulled up, the wolves started chewing at each others binds. But it was too late since all of them were already pulled out. They growled and raced up the vine, years of practice easily paid off.

The three crew members found themselves cornered, but refused to give up. Talis attacked Squint, Bako slashed at Gupta, and Kanu tried to bring Silas down. Before the larger animals could help them, they were tackled by the wolves.

Amos found himself face to face with Aargon. The large wolf lunged at him, but missed as Amos jumped out of the way. Avoiding the snapping jaws wasn't easy, but it kept him on his feet. Suddenly, Amos slipped and fell back. Aargon smirked and prepared to jump on him, but was pushed away hard from the side. He landed on his head and slid across the ice unconscious. Amos stood up and saw Boris standing there before running of off to help the others.

He stared with amazement at his team.

Shira was battling one of the other wolves. Both were rolling and tumbling, trying to gain the upper hand. She succeeded after sinking her teeth into his shoulder and then his throat as he cried.

Kanu was throwing star fish at Silas then grabbed his foot just as he attempted to fly away. The two flew high above the rest, causing the raccoon to hang on even tighter. Silas pecked at his paws, this thankfully caused Kanu to fall. As he landed, Amos was sure he died on impact but saw the slight rigid raise of his chest. Kanu was froze where he was.

Weapons that were embedded in the ice were pulled out as Raz tried to fight off the third wolf. He managed to tackle her, just after she pulled out a long spear with a shell at the end. The handle planted itself in his mouth, preventing him from biting her. Raz pulled her legs under him and pushed him away with such force, he went flying off the ship.

Bako chased Gupta while whacking him with his tail, but Gupta was too fast and avoided every hit. He jumped as the beaver tail slid under his feet. Suddenly he was bounced into the air from landing on Flynn. He landed on the mast and hung on for his life. Below Bako started climbing the mast, prompting Gupta to start climbing as well. After getting to the top, the wind almost blew him off as he hung on. Strange markings on his back were revealed, which shocked Bako. Taking the opportunity, Gupta kicked him in the face. The beaver went tumbling down next to Kanu.

Neither moved as Flynn accidentally jumped on them.

Talis stabbed at Squint only to miss every time the rabbit moved. With one last thrust, Squint wrestled the knife out of his grasp. He held it out to try and scare him, but Talis only laughed, "Aw. Look at the cute little bunny, trying to be all tough."

Squints ears shot up as he started twitching, "That's it! I'm gonna skin you alive!"

He jumped on him and continued doing just what he said. After Squint got back up, the skinned-ferret was twitching from the pain before going limp completely.

Amos couldn't believe what he just saw. But he surprised himself when he didn't feel any sorrow for the crew, in fact he felt nothing.

"Amos! Behind you!" Silas cried.

He turned just in time to see Aargon lunge at him. At that moment, time slowed down. All Amos saw was the large wolf coming right at him. Out of instinct, he lifted his arm and used his claws to slash at Aargon.

The next thing he knew, he was on his back with Aargon limp on top of him. He pushed him off and immediately saw the red streaming from his abdomen. He examined his hand and saw his claws painted red. For a moment he stared at his claws, then started chuckling.

The others stared at him confused, then looked around at their doing. Smiles and chuckling slowly erupted. The rush they all got from the fight was nothing like they ever felt.

And they liked it.

They pushed off the left over bodies into the sea and claimed the ship as their own. Amos assigned them positions as they had already assigned him their captain.

"This my friends... Is the start of a new life for all of us. Starting today, we'll be the most feared pirate crew the sea has ever seen!"

They all cheered as the ship sailed off.

* * *

Gutt smirked at the memory of how he and his crew met.

They indeed did earn the name of most feared crew on the seven seas. For years they perfected their techniques, the reason he gained his own title as Captain Gutt, Master of the Sea.

No matter who they encountered, no matter how bad the storms at sea got, they always prevailed in the end. Gutt never questioned his crew's loyalty to him and they never questioned his to them. It was Gutt who saved them, if he weren't there, they would've all been dead by now. Their loyalty was all he needed from them.

He watched his crew enjoy themselves by torturing a saber-toothed squirrel they found earlier. The pathetic thing was forced to dance while a fish was stuck to his bottom half.

Closing his eyes, Gutt took another trip down memory lane. But the familiar sound flapping wings came closer interrupted his trip.

Silas came in sight and perched on Gutt's shoulder, "It's a huge bounty, Capitaine. Four passengers ripe for the taking. One very smelly and one very plump."

Gutt smirked. Time for another pillage, something he and his crew will never get tired of. Though they were usually the same, it was an exciting activity for them. What could possibly be different from this one?


End file.
